This invention relates generally to the art of compiling, interpreting, and disseminating weather information, and more particularly to a particular weather system for use by aircraft crews in preparing for and during flights.
Prior to takeoff, it is imperative for aircraft crews, particularly pilots, to familiarize themselves with weather conditions which relate to their immediately-planned flights. This, of course, is true not only for commercial airline pilots but also corporate and private pilots.
There are a number of current sources of flight weather information, a main one being the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA, in conjunction with the National Weather Service (NWS), operates an aviation weather information system (FAA/NWS Teletypewriter Service A) from which aviators can get current flight data by telephoning FAA flight service stations. However, such a system of dissemination is quite cumbersome in that telephones are often busy, attendants are often too busy to spend sufficient time with aviators to properly service them, information is often improperly communicated orally over the telephone and it is time consuming. This system is also rather labor-intensive. Because of these deficiencies, it is an object of this invention to avoid oral telephonic communication of weather information and to provide an automated system for disseminating weather information.
Because of the inadequacies of the FAA/NWS system mentioned above, most airlines operate their own meterological departments and corporate aircraft operators generally subscribe to independent weather services. Without regard to the merit of these services, most general aviation pilots of noncorporate aircraft cannot afford these services, and therefore must still resort to telephoning, or visiting FAA flight service stations as is mentioned above. Because of the shortcomings of the FAA/NWS system, as described above, some general aviation pilots tend to rely on commercial television weather broadcasts, which of course are not specific enough for aviators' needs. Because of this, it is an object of this invention to provide a system and method of disseminating aviation weather information to general aviation, as well as other, pilots which is sufficiently convenient and inexpensive that general aviation pilots will use the system and therefore will obtain needed, updated, specific weather information prior to taking off on flights.
Airline meteorological departments tend to concentrate on particular scheduled routes of their respective airlines, to the exclusion of other areas, and would not generally have sufficient flexibility to serve general aviation pilots for unscheduled flights, or, for that matter, airline flights when schedules are changed. To overcome this, it is an object of this invention to provide an aviation weather dissemination system having sufficient flexibility that it can quickly provide accurate, and specific weather information for particular flight paths even though the flight paths are new, and not often traveled.
The independent weather services are more flexible in providing information than are the corporate meteorological departments, however, even these services do not quickly provide particular weather information, tailor-made for unscheduled flights. These services will generally provide printouts from a data terminal which consist of: (1) current weather observations from a few selected airports; (2) details of severe weather; (3) terminal forecasts; (4) area forecasts; (5) Notice to Airmen (NOTAMS), which is used for special events, such as rocket firings or other activities that require that planes stay out of a particular air space; (6) Significant Meterological Event (SIGMETS), which is a report on very severe weather; (7) Announcement of Meterological Event (AIRMETS), which is also a report on bad weather, but less severe than SIGMETS; (8) winds aloft forecasts; (9) Pilot Reports (PIREPS), which are reports from other pilots; (10) radar reports; (11) weather warnings; and (12) digitized radar maps. However, these services do not provide quick, tailor-made weather information for particular nonscheduled flights. Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a weather-information compilation and dissemination system which provides quick, accurate, and tailor-made weather forecasts for unscheduled flight paths as well as scheduled flight paths.
Another difficulty with existing national independent weather services is that often one must own a terminal before one can use these services, with the terminals currently costing in the neighborhood of $15,000 to $20,000 each. To avoid this, it is an object of this invention to provide a weather-dissemination system which allows general aviation pilots to obtain weather information without having to buy expensive terminals.
Yet another problem with prior-art weather dissemination systems is that they do not allow accurate dissemination of weather information to airborne crews. In this regard, weather has customarily been sent to airborne crews verbally and such a method has all the shortcomings described above for the FAA/NWS system. To overcome this, of late, aircrafts have often utilized CRT radar scan receivers inside aircraft so that the crews can see radar scans of their immediate areas. Such systems are relatively expensive, and therefore not often used by general aviation pilots. Also, such systems provide only information concerning the immediate areas of aircraft, which is rather limiting. Because of these shortcomings of prior-art systems, it is another object of this invention to provide a weather-information dissemination system which airborne aircraft crews can "plug into" for obtaining visual weather information concerning not only their immediate position, but also their entire flight path, and other areas if desired.